Ashes to Ashes
by Bijuewled
Summary: His entire world had revolved around fire, and his world fell apart when that fire took her life away. Nalu Cover photo belongs to the wonderful nanakoblaze


_**A/N:**_ _Hello there lovelies! (sounds pretty out of place for this style of story, huh?)_

 _This is another submission for Fairy Tail angst week, focusing on my favorite couple (again)._

 _Nonetheless, enjoy the angst ahead!_

* * *

The flames were too much.

Her golden hair was sprawled out all around the ground, pieces of it burned to cinders and dyed a devilish black. The ribbon she'd tied her hair back with earlier that day lay a few feet away, live embers clutching onto the blue string for dear and undeserving life.

Her head rested on his lap, her face contorted with pain. Small and quick hurried breaths escaped her shaking lips, every so often exchanging those breaths for weak cries of pain. His face was a mirror image of her own, his mind attacking every inch of his brain each time she cried in pain.

He knew that it had been his fault, he hadn't gotten to her fast enough.

Slowly, he brushed a piece of hair away from her eyelashes, and immediately felt his heart shatter when he saw the burn that stamped itself onto her flawless vanilla skin, a dark and menacing maroon path that traced down all the way to her chest. It was almost as if the fire had drawn a map on her body, marking her fresh skin with its hot and heated paths of death-

 _No,_ he frantically told himself over and over again, _She won't die..she won't die.._

She couldn't die.

He repeated this statement over and over again, the syllables blending together into a horrific mess that only made him dizzy and drunk of misery, enough to keep him unstable for the rest of his life.

 _She wouldn't die….she won't die…_

And yet, her body tried to prove him otherwise.

The flames had burned through her white blouse, attacking her very core with its fiery inferno. The fabric had burned away, leaving the same malicious red burn plastered onto her stomach, only this one had been worse. Spots of blood soaked into the remaining fabric of her shirt, the rest dripping down onto the ground around her torso. The tattoos of burns on her body were yet to cease; His eyes travelled down to her exposed thighs, now destroyed with different shades of red and black, ending around her shaking ankles.

Even _he_ didn't know that human skin could be burned into so many different shades of red..

But now he'd seen the truth.

And the truth was that he had witnessed the entire thing.

The flames bursting out unexpectedly.

His throat constricting from the force he'd put into to call out her name.

Her eyes…full of horror and fear.

The deafening thump of her body hitting the ground…

"N-Na..tsu?"

His gaze immediately shifted to meet her chocolate eyes, shining with pain.

He felt his entire body begin to shake as she gave him a weak smile that she immediately dropped, wincing in pain as it was required to move her cheeks in order _to_ smile.

 _She will never smile without feeling pain_ Natsu thought to himself grimly, which only fueled the sadness in his heart. He couldn't imagine it, smiling with a consequence of extreme pain..a smile was supposed to be the opposite of pain! A smile was used to take away the pain and sadness that one felt, a smile existed to make others and the person doing it happy! A smile was for joy, happiness…

And seeing Lucy without her usual smile on her face…Natsu couldn't fathom it.

"You're crying."

Natsu felt the tips of Lucy's fingers gently touch his cheek, shakily wiping away hot tears that poured steadily down his face, not that he had noticed in the least bit. It was only when he felt his nose burn did he acknowledge that there were in fact tears in his eyes.

"I…thought…that dragons didn't… cry." Lucy joked softly, lowering her arm weakly to her side on the ground.

Natsu laughed weakly, quickly dragging a clenched fist across his eyes, wiping away the salt water that his eyes kept producing feverishly. "Of course we don't."

Natsu's ears picked up the fire around them, the flames devouring every inch of the ground. The _cracks_ and _pops_ of the flames exploded in the air, setting Natsu on edge.

It was getting stronger.

"I'm sorry."

Natsu's attention was reverted back to Lucy, his eyes widening when he saw the tears that began to bud in her eyes.

"I.." she hoarsely whispered. "I wasn't strong enough.."

Her tears spilled out of her eyes at a rapid pace, and she cried out when they washed over the burn on her cheek. She released a mangled and inhumane scream, the pain in her voice drowning out the flames and the crashes of collapsing buildings. Her breaths were rapid and short, her chest heaving up and down.

He'd never seen her in such pain.

"Natsu.." she choked out between painful sobs, biting down on her chapped lips. "Why is everything so…so wet?"

 _She's not gonna die.._

The flow of Natsu's tears increased by a tenfold. This time, he was the one to brush away the tears from the apple of her cheek, careful not to touch her burned one.

"You're bleeding, Luce." he replied hoarsely, his eyes swimming with pain.

 _She's not gonna die.._

"I'm.." she stammered weakly "So cold.."

 _She won't die._

If Lucy was gone, who's apartment would he sneak into?

If Lucy was gone, who would make his favorite chocolate cake with jalapeño frosting?

If Lucy…If Lucy…. _died….._

Who would he say _I love you_ to?

Who's lips would he kiss, who's neck would he bury his face into, who's vanilla and strawberry lotion would he steal just so he could smell her when she wasn't with him?

Nobody, that's who.

"Keep them safe."

Natsu looked into Lucy's glassy eyes, and when he finally realized what she had meant, he shook his head so quickly that his surroundings swirled into and orange and heated blur.

"No." he whispered.

"Make sure to tell them that I'm sorry."

"Lucy-"

"And that," she barely choked out, her face taking on a pained expression. Natsu watched as her hand weakly clutched the leather pouch clipped onto her denim shorts, keys of silver and gold peeking out and glowing with the reflection of the flames. "That I love each and every one of them-"

"No!" Natsu yelled, cutting her off and drowning out the crackling of the flames, his voice cracking. He allowed his tears to pour out of his eyes, dripping onto the ground and onto Lucy's burnt hair.

"I'm not telling your spirits goodbye for you! I won't, because you're not gonna die! Lucy, do you hear me?!" Natsu cried, cupping her cheek with his right hand and squeezing her hand with his left. "You _will not_ die! Not here, and not anytime soon! You're going to live! You're going to continue to get stronger, with the guild and with me! You've come too far to let go now! You're going to _live!_ Do you hear me?! Lucy, you won't die!"

Lucy's face began to blur as his tears dominated his eyes, but regardless, he could still see her widened eyes staring up at him, shining with tears.

"I love you..Lucy Heartfilia.." he choked out, stroking her tear streaked cheek.

Natsu watched as Lucy brought her shaking hand up to her face to clutch his hand. She smiled at him weakly, eyes shimmering.

"And I love _you_..Natsu Dragneel.."

Slowly, he brought his lips down to hers, and they kissed softly.

Lucy squeezed Natsu's hand as they kissed, and he'd squeezed right back, intending to never let go.

And then, the inevitable came crashing down upon them.

Her lips went limp underneath his, unresponsive and cold.

It was then that Natsu froze, lifting his lips slowly from hers to examine their hands, his still firmly grasping hers, while she no longer reciprocated the action. His horror struck eyes travelled back to her face slowly, staring down at her pale face, speechless.

"Luce?"

She didn't respond.

Natsu's entire body began to shake, loosing control of his muscles. He felt his heart palpitate dangerously in his chest, threatening to burst forward out of his body.

"Lucy? Hey, Lucy?"

The last of her tears poured down her face, drenching her wound on her cheek.

She didn't cry out in pain.

"No…no no no.." Natsu uncontrollably stammered, wrapping his arms around her limp torso and bringing her up against his chest. Slowly, he brought his ear to her chest, and a scream caught in his throat.

She had no heartbeat.

He brought his horrified eyes to her lifeless face, a face that had once held so much happiness, so much life, so much love.

And it was gone, all gone.

"Lucy, please wake up!" he cried, tears stinging his face as he rested his forehead against hers, his entire body shaking.

Then, a sudden spark of glitter caught Natsu's attention.

He raised his forehead slowly from Lucy's his eyes following the source of the glittering light that had sparked its presence into his peripheral vision. He followed the light to its source.

And watched in horror as Lucy's keys began to glow and vibrate, soft and agonizing whispers filling the smoke filled sky.

 _Luuucy-sama…_

 _Princess…_

 _Lucy-san.._

 _Lucy…._

 _Puun Puun…_

The golden light vanished, along with the voices of Lucy's spirits, her beloved partners..

Released from their contracts.

He said that he never wanted to let go, but she had.

And just like that, his entire world shattered.

"LUCY!"

The fire raged on.


End file.
